Thread: The Outdoor Workbench

Hi Paul,

If you ever have swarms of the flying type of termites I have found that spray-adhesive works really well for thwarting their ambitions and keeps them localized. If the Texas red ants or fire ants find them they are very quickly recycled.

Cheers,
Rob

Originally Posted by rob streeper

..... If the Texas red ants or fire ants find them they are very quickly recycled......

In Australia there should not be any fire ants. These are dealt with very quickly if discovered. Not sure about the Texas red ants.

And I agree the red ants are very vicious.

I spent some time to finish off the slats for the gate ... and get away from paperwork : /

Instead of using the jointer like last time I just sent them through the lunchbox thicknesser ... quicker but noisier.

I uncovered the bench and clamped one of the vices I've had for a couple years (off ebay) on top so I could handplane the edges (which I'd also done on the jointer last time).

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I found the height - 690mm (about 27") level with the knuckles of my hand - was a perfect height ... but that is with the vice (and the wood) sitting ontop of the bench, so the wood was a little higher than it might otherwise be.

I was straightening one edge, marking a parallel line and planing down to that. I have about a 50-50 relationship with my pretty standard pin and cutting gauges ... so I was pleased when I thought to drill a boxwood pin gauge to take a pencil ... which didn't grab and wander and was accurate enough for this at least.

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So finally ... ready to put the gate together. One of the long boards broke across at a knot. I think I might need it .. if so I will half-lap it back together into one piece.

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Considering the rustic working conditions ( or are they actually primitive? ) You are
doing brilliantly well. Keep it coming!!!

I'd go with 'agricultural' ... but the farmers might riot at the implied association.

I placed them roughly together to see how it was looking so far ...

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I didn't necessarily need the broken slat ... but I had about 40mm more to cover.
I like leaving things around, within view ... to absorb and process subconsciously.
Unfortunately the wind came up the next day (today monday) and pushed over my frame ... breaking off a corner. Doh.
But easily glued back, and then reinforced with screws.

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I decided to put a centre stile(?) the same size as the rest of the frame.
I can remember having a hell of a time in the past trying to make a 4-square out of a twisted plank by hand.
But it is good fun now, and I think doing it manually is helpful as well for doing it by machine.

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I rebated the top and bottom to fit into the frame, and screwed it into place.
Then stepped back, looked at it squinty-eyed ... and unscrewed it, squared up the frame and screwed it back again.

So this is it tonight, needing the edge slats trimmed down a bit to size.
The tenons haven't been pegged yet, and the cross-slats are just in place temporarily at the moment.

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I wonder if this is going to happen a lot??

Tuesday after work, about 8am ... the job was simple ... trim down the edge slats to fit at the sides.

But first, one of the tenon shoulders was gap-y and I wanted to kerf-in the joint and get a neater fit.
I tried that. Hmmm ... bit messy. Not quite what I wanted. Check square all round ... What the hell??
Go back readjust ... still out ... everywhere. Gah!
Undo the centre slat ... re-check for square ... aaaahhhhhhh ... it's doing my head in.

Ok. Deep breath ... what can we salvage from this?
There is a circular-saw cut in the top rail (pre-existing) and a big knot that has broken on a tenon shoulder on the same rail.
I pared away at the knot to clean up the area, and cut a slim fillet for the sawcut area ... glued in the repairs and left it the hell alone.

Coming back to it today ... a completely different story. Chalk and cheese.
Pared the repairs back ...

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Adjusting the frame slightly left/right ... square no problem. (what!)

I decided the best way to work this was to lock in the gains.
I also decided I didn't want to spend time creating pegs for the mortices and that I had accumulated quite a lot of screws.
So two screws per tenon.

I clamped the top rail in from above and below the tenon ... double checked still square (yes!) ... and used a drill with a bit, a drill as a screwdriver, and a brace with a countersink bit to fix the top two corners.
Then one of the bottom tenons ... same.
Then re-kerfed the last shoulder ... clamped across ... Neat (tick) Square (tick) ... screwed. Relief.

Set the centre slat back in place + check square. Yes . Screwed in place.

Placed the slats and check for fit ... had the jointer on to dress them up a bit here and there on the edges ... and to knock the edge slats down to size.

Then I screwed the outer slats to the frame at top, bottom and 2 points in between.
Took the cross slats, check the lengths, sawed and sanded the ends to a bit of a round, then rebated the ends to screw down on the frame and hold the slats.
And finally to screw through to the slats, putting a large hole in the cross slat to hopefully allow enough wood movement.

Done! (but I'm going to add a third cross slat)


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'Finished' back ... 'Finished' front ... phewww....

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I don't know about this finishing a project business. It seems like a lot of work.

Smart looking unit after all that angst!!!

Iwas pleased to see in your last post that things were screwed
in the best possible meaning of the term.

Originally Posted by artme

I was pleased to see in your last post that things were screwed
in the best possible meaning of the term.

Screwing things up (or down, or sideways) is a specialty of mine.

[interesting ... the forum software doesn't like "specialty" ... it wants "speciality" ...
I don't suppose it's an american thing because it flags color and not colour ...]

The gate is pretty good to my eye so far - I'm pleased it has come out to be something that fits my unconscious ideas of what a gate should be. I wouldn't call it super secure at the moment, the connection between cross slats and frame is a weak point.

After looking at my own photos zoomed in, I'm going to add two more screws into the edge slats (which are in turn fixed to the frame), and another in the centre.

Homesy asked me if I was going to add a diagonal brace. I'm going to add another cross slat. Don't know whether it needs to go diagonal??
I don't mind either way - I don't think the frame needs it against racking, the mortice and tenon frame seems pretty rigid.
It would be more about the look and strengthening the middle section.

The rubber ... I forgot the rubber. Remembered it when I nearly dropped a block plane!

This mat that was on the drive was meant to come over here now.

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Real gates have diagonal bracing!

Originally Posted by pmcgee

The rubber ... I forgot the rubber. Remembered it when I nearly dropped a block plane!

...

I bet you say that to all the girls ...

6 months later ...

No proper workbench ... but no issues with being out in a lot of rain recently

Cheap PVA glue still ok.

Paul

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